Amazon to launch 3,000 cashierless stores by 2021: Report

According to a report, Amazon is considering opening 3,000 of its cashierless stores by 2021.

Amazon is mulling a plan to open as many as 3,000 cashierless food stores over the next three years, according to a media report.

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The world's largest online retailer, which calls the stores AmazonGo, has been operating such an outlet in Seattle since the end of December 2016, when the facility opened to Amazon employees, according to Bloomberg. Amazon has since opened that store to the public and added two more in Seattle. A fourth AmazonGo opened Monday in Chicago and there are plans to open a fifth in New York City.

If Amazon follows through with the rumored plan, it would pose a threat to convenience store chains like 7-Eleven, which must bear the expense of paying cashiers and other staff, Bloomberg said.

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AmazonGo outlets each use hundreds of cameras and sensors to detect what customers take off shelves and bill their credit card accounts. There is no checkout and no printed receipt, but customers must have a smartphone app to shop in the stores.